Some of my links didn't work on
the last one so I am sending it again.

E D U C A T I O N A L E R T

Negative Score Results of the Global International
Baccalaureate (IB) Educational Program Being Implemented in Arkansas

(Note: The documentation is in
footnotes)

SB1054 of 2005 allows school districts in
Arkansas to substitute the United Nations International Baccalaureate
Organization courses (called IB or IBO), for Advanced Placement Classes. This
is of great concern to many educators and citizens in Arkansas. We request that
the legislators study this program and rescind this action. 1
(Note: Some schools and laws have changed the
name and are just using International Studies in order to deceive the people and
make them think this is not an IB program. ) To see how one school has
done this,see this
link:
http://www.wpaag.org/IB%20-%20Jonesobro%203%20versions%20of%20IB%20description%20at%20SAC.htm

The International Baccalaureate program has been
implemented district wide at Hot Springs, Arkansas (one of three IBO Programs
in Arkansas). Hot Springs had their first IB Diploma graduates last year
after having the IB program in high school for four years and in the elementary
schools for six years. 2.

The 2005 Performance Record for Hot
Springs (the latest on the ADE website in a form that can easily be accessed)
record the negative consequences of this education program on achievement
even though Hot Springs spends $8,688 per pupil while the state spends an
average of $7,348 per pupil.. 3

·Hot Springs has a graduation
rate of 56.4%. State average is
81.3% In 2000, before Hot Springs began the IB program, the graduation rate was
83.5% 4

College remediation rate of
67. The state
remediation rate is 51.6. In 2002-2003, the year Hot Springs officially
started the IB program, their remediation rate was 53.0 5

ACT score in English 17.8 and Mathematics 18.1
(State average is 20.9 and 20.5).
In 2002-2003, the year Hot Springs officially implemented High School IB, Hot
Spring ACT score in math was 18.5 and English 20.3
6

End of Course Literacy (11th Grade EOC) score was 37 Proficient;
state average score is 47 Proficient.
Despite the IB program and above average per pupil spending, not even 1% of
their students scored Advanced on this test 7.

Their 9th grade Reading score is 41st percentile on the nationally normed
test, and the state average is 52.All Nationally normed test scores from 6th grade up are much lower than the
state average. 8.

Hot Springs is not making NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and is in Year
Two of School Improvement.See link at footnote 8.

Hot Springs does have one school (Park Magnet
School) with very good scores;
HOWEVER, there are only 12% of the Hot Springs elementary students in
that school, and the ratio of whites and minorities is totally out of
balance: 75% white and 18% black, or 25% minority and 75% white when you
add in the other minorities. Langston Magnet School, the magnet school with
the lowest scores has 71% minority and 29% white. The other two schools
fall in between these ratios. The following scores in 4th grade benchmark
scores are pretty typical of the four magnet schools. Park Magnet School
is the designated IB School, also called PYP. 9

Park Magnet (244 students)

97 Proficient or above

State 52 Proficient or above

Gardner Magnet (596 students)

51 Proficient or above

1 point below state average

Oaklawn Magnet (743 students)

40 Proficient or above

12 pts below state average

Langston Magnet (457 students)

29 Proficient or above

23 pts below state average

Link for documentation at Footnote
10

(Note:
there are almost twice as many students in the school with score of 23 points
below state average than in the school with highest score, Park Magnet School,
and almost three times the number of students in the school 12 points below
state average than in Park. These scores (representing abilities) and the
ratio of minorities to whites would certainly reflect a social caste system.
And where is the equitable and adequate education for all!

According to a school official only 10 to 20%
of high school candidates are candidates for their IB Diploma program, so their
high school probably falls along similar patterns as the elementary schools.
This school official said some of
their IB classes were very small, 5 students I think for at least one class
which is one of the factors that makes the IB program so expensive. Haven't
the legislators said they wanted consolidation in order to cut costs by
increasing class size?

IB Described by Principal on the Jonesboro
School District Website:

"INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES at SAC - Arthur Jackson, Principal :
Our curriculum will encourage students to be global minded as they explore how
their world affects the bigger world in which we live. Students will
participate in innovative and challenging hands-on experiences….The
curriculum will not be “textbook driven” but will focus on developing thinking
and inquiring minds with opportunities for students to work in small groups and
create projects. Students will frame all learning within a world
perspective as they participate in in-depth studies of six units of inquiry.
11

IB described by the (worldwide)
Director of the IBO, George Walker, at Stockholm.

International Baccalaureate Director George
Walker (United Nations provided funding to create the International
Baccalaureate Organization, a non-government organization, in Geneva,
Switzerland) says there are three parts to the IB curriculum, the compulsory
part, the extra curriculum part; and in his own words, the "hidden
curriculum, the informal but influential rules, beliefs and attitudes that
determine the transmission of norms and values.

IBO Director Walker explains what global
education is and what it is not. First, global education is not
what the average US citizen would think it is. It is not international
awareness of other nationalities and their views, culture, and values; and it is
not just an academic education that prepares the student for international
employment.

Instead Walker explains that a global student
education is one that changes the belief system of the student so that the
student no longer believes in patriotism and nationalism or the religion passed
down by his culture. And it produces a citizen, in Walker's own words again,
with the "skill of persuading [other] people to compromise or change their
minds" as well, a citizen with "both the ability and the attitude that
wants to shift another person’s position as well as their own."

IBO Director Walker says, "How do we
reconcile a spirit of inquiry with a patriarchal culture that values
received wisdom and rote learning? How can a secular curriculum be adopted in a
country where religious faith, rather than empirical observation, defines the
limits of truth? Is it possible to be a free-thinking individual, perhaps
perceived as amoral, in a culture where the rules and rituals are
unconditionally accepted and rigorously adhered to?"
[Note the reason for doing away with rote learning and textbooks – it is
received wisdom] 12

The eleventh and twelfth grade students have to
take the IB tests prepared by the United Nations sponsored IB to get their
diploma. These tests are not even graded in the United States. (Some
people believe this is a made up story, but according to a school official at
Hot Springs, these tests are sent to various countries in the world to be
graded. Some go to Beijing, China, some to Uganda, some to some to Venezuela,
some to New Zealand and Wales and various other countries. The school
official said their postage in high school last year for sending these tests to
other countries for grading was eight thousand dollars ($8,000.)

Now, a suburban Pittsburgh school district is
abolishing IBO over questions of politics and cost.School board members in a Minnesota district call it anti-American and
anti-Christian. In New Jersey, members of one school board argue it's a waste of
money.
One teacher objects to the program because of IBO's endorsement of the Earth
Charter which calls for sustainability of the Earth through,, among other
things, responsible reproduction and wealth distribution. 13

Several schools in Arkansas are now considering
this program without knowing the philosophy behind it. We ask you legislators
to study this program and rescind the law that allows IB courses to take the
place of Advanced Placement courses.

2. "
Instituted in 2004, the Diploma Program at Hot Springs High School is one of
three IBO authorized Diploma Programs in the state of Arkansas. Students engage
in a curriculum and activities shared by schools across the globe that prepare
students for college and professional opportunities. Within the Hot Springs
School District, the Diploma Program in grades 11 & 12 represents the
culmination of the full IB curriculum, completing the education begun in the
Primary Years Program (PYP) in elementary and continued in the Middle Years
Program (MYP) in grades 6-10." From Hot Springs website at this link:
http://ib.hssd.net/theibprogram.html